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Saturday, 15 June 2013

Musing About Glazing

I have a thing
for glass. As a kid I even had a phase when I wanted to be a glassblower. I was
so fascinated with the process of transforming the glowing mass of molten glass
into beautiful vessels just by blowing air into it.

I didn’t
become a glassblower, but a potter instead. Still, I am dealing with some kind
of glass when glazing the pots: Ceramic glazes include silica which is also the
main substance of glass. In a few days I will be glazing the recently bisque fired
pots. So, lately I was thinking a lot about different glazing possibilities.

Glazing can be
tricky. If you choose a wrong glaze you may aesthetically destroy the most
beautiful vessel. However, sometimes a good choice of glaze can rescue a failed
vessel. If you use transparent glaze, you are generally on a safe side. The transparent-glazed
vessels retain the most of their origin look; somehow they are still naked, yet
protected with the translucent layer of glaze. The transparent
glaze is applied thinner than the coloured ones. Even though, the glaze is
clear, any mistakes can be detected easily. For example, if you apply to much glaze,
it may become milky. Here you can see it:

Since I really
like the smoky and opalescent look of it, this time I want to make a little experiment:
I will apply the transparent glaze as thick as the bisque-ware can handle it. I
am so curious if I can turn this accidental glazing mistake into something really
spectacular. Wouldn’t it be great to achieve the depth and opalescence similar to
this Art Nouveau beauty?